requestforproposalfandomcom-20200215-history
Hanover-class cruiser
The Hanover-class cruisers were a single-ship class, one of several types of broadly similar armored ship (German: panzerschiff) that were designed and constructed in parallel following the German withdrawal from the naval restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and the collapse of the subsequent Anglo-German Naval Agreement negotiations in 1935. Hanover was reclassified as a heavy cruiser (German: schwerer kreuzer) by the Kriegsmarine when the panzerschiff designation was retired in 1940. Alongside Seeadler and Wilhelmshaven , Hanover ''participated in multiple merchant raiding missions throughout WWII however, her service was rather limited due to a multitude of issues with her design. Background With the collapse of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement negotiations in 1935, the Kriegsmarine put out a request for panzerschiffe designs to their domestic ship producers. Due to the Kriegsmarine never being able to produce a balanced fleet to counter Britain, it was viewed that producing as many surface raiders in a similar vein to the vaunted ''Deutschland class could help starve or atleast disrupt Britain and her allies. Rather counter productively, instead of producing ships of a single class, the procurement for this program ended up producing a group of single ship classes which led to logistical issues, alongside some of the terribly flawed designs themselves. Design In a stark comparison to the rather compact nature of Seeadler and Wilhelmshaven, Hanover ''was a rather long ship at 234m, only a meter shy of the ''Scharnhorst class battleships. It is rather confusing after the earlier structural strength issues of the Königsberg-class cruisers, ''the designers of ''Hanover ''completely ignored the lessons learned and produced a ship that was even more structurally questionable. The only thing more questionable than the hull strength of the ship was the reason why the Kriegsmarine accepted and proceeded to build this design. With a length to beam ratio of 15.33:1, it is thought that the designers saw the length to beam ratio of the ''Königsberg-class cruisers ''as more of a challenge rather than a lesson. Propulsion This is the bit that makes your ship go. Armament The armament of Hanover contained many strange facets. The main and secondary guns themselves were the same type mounted on the ''Scharnhorst-class battleships ''and ''Königsberg-class cruisers ''respectively however, the mountings themselves had the middle guns removed as weight saving measures. Similarly to the ''Deutschland-class, the torpedo armament had issues with it's upkeep and use in a stern sea due to the low stern however with Hanover, ''this issue was exacerbated heavily. The torpedo tubes were placed in cutouts below the main working deck, this resulted in the mounts frequently being unusable in even a mild sea or at higher speeds. On her sea trials, the port torpedo tube was washed overboard and subsequently lost. ''Hanover was also equipped with stern mine rails similar to the Konigsberg-class ''however the strangest and most questionable addition to the ship is a full anti-submarine warfare suite consisting of two depth charge projectors and a stern rail. While the novel value of being able to engage enemy submarines seems valuable to a merchant raider, the large size and likelihood of damage during said engagement makes this addition rather dangerous due to the depth charges, which the Kriegsmarine found out the hard way in ''Hanover's service. Protection Insert witty and not tired Fisher meme here Ships Hanover Category:1935 German Panzerschiff RFP Category:Panzerschiffe Category:Heavy Cruisers Category:Kriegsmarine